Calamity Jane
Martha Jane Canary was a tobacco-spitting, beer-guzzling, foul-mouthed woman who preferred men’s clothing to dresses. She was well known through the Hills as Calamity Jane, but how she got this nickname is a legendary debate. According to Old West legend, Calamity Jane rode into a group of fighting hostiles to save a wounded army captain. Jane emerged from the fight untouched so the captain named her “Calamity Jane.” Or did he? Some say Jane made the whole thing up because she was looking for attention from the town’s legendary men — especially Wild Bill Hickok who she claimed to love. It’s widely reported that Hickok, who was married, had little interest in Jane and that’s why the townsfolk buried her next to him in Mount Moriah Cemetery — so she could spend eternity with him and they could play the ultimate joke on Hickok.